Steambath

I watched this 3 times in one month on public TV nearly 28 years ago. Then it vanished. It remains one of the best shows I have ever seen. It was funny and touching and totally unexpected. Support public TV and ask for it!

I was fifteen when this movie originally aired. I watched it because I was a Bill Bixby fan, of all things (I was a big My Favorite Martian fan, and "The Courtship of Eddie's father was THE antidote to my real father). OK, I was fifteen, and the sight of Valerie Perrine in a towel made a big impression on me, but so did the themes and thought of this play. A lifelong agnostic, sometimes the sense of humor is the only sense that makes sense. PBS, if you won't re-air this, please make it available on video.

I only saw this film once, but I have never forgotten the warm and deeply Spiritual connection I felt to it. I have been asking video stores for years to get it, but to no avail. Would love to own a copy of it someday.

People inside a public steambath realize that they have passed on...and God is their Latino mop-boy! A genuine oddity in the world of TV, this shot-on-video production is certainly not going to appeal to everyone...but for anyone with an interest in strange teleplays, this comes highly recommended. 7/10

I agree wholeheartedly with those who like this movie. I too watched it on PBS in the early seventies with a group of my friends and we all thought it was hilarious--even profound. Bruce Jay Friedman is one of the cleverest and most imaginative writers around. Check out his stories in the volume Black Angels if you want to see more of his work. Steambath is an unacknowledged gem. It ranks right alongside the black humor of Vonnegut, John Irving and T.C. Boyle. It should be resurrected.